1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works, Hey, brain stuff, 2 00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:10,360 Speaker 1: laurin bubble bom here. Even though around seventy of our 3 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:12,600 Speaker 1: planet is covered in salt water, we have a better 4 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:14,600 Speaker 1: map of Mars than we do of the oceans that 5 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:18,720 Speaker 1: sustain virtually every living thing on Earth. Sure, ocean exploration 6 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: is expensive and complicated, but so is space exploration, and 7 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:25,120 Speaker 1: we do plenty of that. There was a time, though, 8 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:28,400 Speaker 1: during the early years of space exploration, that aquanauts were 9 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:30,760 Speaker 1: pushing the limits of how deep humans could dive under 10 00:00:30,800 --> 00:00:33,040 Speaker 1: the ocean and how long they could stay down there. 11 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:36,080 Speaker 1: Sea Lab, a program launched by the U. S. Navy 12 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:38,760 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four, was intended to figure out how 13 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:41,680 Speaker 1: to send divers down into the freezing, high pressure environments 14 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:43,959 Speaker 1: of the deep sea for longer periods of time than 15 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:47,159 Speaker 1: anyone had ever thought possible, and the program was a 16 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:51,800 Speaker 1: big success until it wasn't anymore. It's always challenging to 17 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:54,200 Speaker 1: get a human body free swimming at any great depth, 18 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:56,400 Speaker 1: of the reason being that our bodies are not made 19 00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: to withstand millions of gallons of water being piled on 20 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:02,640 Speaker 1: top of us. Divers have to breathe pressurized air, which 21 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:06,399 Speaker 1: contains inert gases nitrogen mainly, that dissolve into the bloodstream 22 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:08,920 Speaker 1: and tissues, which works out great so long as the 23 00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:11,800 Speaker 1: weight of the entire ocean keeps them compressed. If a 24 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:13,880 Speaker 1: diver wants to come up to the surface, they must 25 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:16,119 Speaker 1: do it slowly in order to avoid the gases making 26 00:01:16,160 --> 00:01:19,000 Speaker 1: little bubbles in their blood, migrating to their joints and 27 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:22,800 Speaker 1: causing decompression sickness sometimes called the bends, which is unspeakably 28 00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:26,920 Speaker 1: painful and sometimes fatal. In the early nineteen sixties, a 29 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:29,640 Speaker 1: Navy physician named George Bond figured out how to let 30 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:31,880 Speaker 1: people explore the ocean in a new way through a 31 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:36,280 Speaker 1: technique called saturation diving. In his laboratory experiments, Bond was 32 00:01:36,319 --> 00:01:38,920 Speaker 1: able to saturate the blood with inert gases like helium 33 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:41,360 Speaker 1: in such a way that divers could not only go deep, 34 00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:44,039 Speaker 1: they could stay down indefinitely so long as they had 35 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:46,679 Speaker 1: the right set up and a shelter. Divers could become 36 00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:49,760 Speaker 1: acclimated to a habitat two hundred feet that's sixty below 37 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:53,680 Speaker 1: the surface, and free dive even deeper from there. We 38 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:56,960 Speaker 1: spoke with Ben Hellworth, the author of Sea Lab America's 39 00:01:56,960 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 1: Forgotten Quest to live and work on the ocean floor. 40 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:03,280 Speaker 1: He described it this way. Dr Bond's breakthroughs were a 41 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:06,080 Speaker 1: little bit like the diving equivalent of breaking the sound barrier. 42 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:08,600 Speaker 1: It was a quantum leap in technology over what the 43 00:02:08,639 --> 00:02:12,200 Speaker 1: diving parameters had been for more than a century. Sea 44 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:14,880 Speaker 1: Lab one, the first iteration of the Sea Lab experiment, 45 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:17,600 Speaker 1: was housed in a steel tube fifty seven feet long 46 00:02:17,639 --> 00:02:20,320 Speaker 1: that's about seventeen meters that was lowered onto the ocean 47 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 1: floor off the coast of Bermuda in July nineteen sixty 48 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:25,240 Speaker 1: four at a depth of a hundred and ninety two 49 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:29,359 Speaker 1: feet that's about fifty nine Four men successfully stayed submerged 50 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:32,040 Speaker 1: in this pod for eleven days, and the experiment went 51 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:34,120 Speaker 1: so well that Sea Lab two was submerged off the 52 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: coast of California at a depth of two hundred and 53 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: five feet that's sixty two mems in August of the 54 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:42,320 Speaker 1: next year. Sea Lab two had hot showers, a refrigerator, 55 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:45,320 Speaker 1: and a dolphin named Tuffy trained to deliver supplies and 56 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:48,919 Speaker 1: rescue aquanuts if necessary. After a thirty days stay in 57 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:52,440 Speaker 1: Sea Lab two, aquanut and astronauts Scott Carpenter spoke to 58 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:56,640 Speaker 1: President Lyndon Johnson from his helium atmosphere decompression chamber, sounding 59 00:02:56,639 --> 00:02:59,720 Speaker 1: like a cartoon chipmunk. He might have sounded ridiculous, but 60 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:02,040 Speaker 1: his three was made. He had survived a month at 61 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: a pressure of one and three p s I, which 62 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:08,720 Speaker 1: is seven times that of Earth's atmosphere. President Johnson told Carpenter, 63 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:10,720 Speaker 1: I want you to know that the nation is very 64 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:13,880 Speaker 1: proud of you. Only a few years later, though, a 65 00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:16,480 Speaker 1: fatal accident on Sea Lab three, which was situated on 66 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:18,280 Speaker 1: the sea floor off the coast of California at a 67 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:20,160 Speaker 1: depth of six hundred feet that's a hundred and eighty 68 00:03:20,200 --> 00:03:24,720 Speaker 1: three meters, would shut the program down. Hellworth said most 69 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:27,160 Speaker 1: people involved were aware that this was a dangerous operation. 70 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 1: They always knew. It had been Sea Lab one and 71 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:31,959 Speaker 1: Sea Lab two had gone well with no major injuries. 72 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:35,080 Speaker 1: After the tragedy on Sea Lab three, they all expected 73 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:37,360 Speaker 1: to press on, but the Navy didn't see it that way, 74 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:39,800 Speaker 1: so the program was canceled. It was still a low 75 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:42,720 Speaker 1: profile enough program that there wasn't a national uproar about 76 00:03:42,760 --> 00:03:44,400 Speaker 1: giving up the race to the bottom of the ocean 77 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:46,280 Speaker 1: that you would expect if they had tried to cancel 78 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:49,040 Speaker 1: the Space program two years earlier after the Apollo one 79 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:52,240 Speaker 1: launch pad fire that killed three astronauts. I think everyone 80 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:54,920 Speaker 1: expected the program to go on, but for various reasons, 81 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:58,400 Speaker 1: it didn't. We still use the technical breakthroughs George Bond 82 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 1: pioneered with the Sea Lab program, mostly in the oil industry, 83 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:04,520 Speaker 1: setting up oil platforms. Saturation divers can go to a 84 00:04:04,600 --> 00:04:07,000 Speaker 1: job site hundreds of feet below the surface and stay 85 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:09,440 Speaker 1: down there for an entire eight hour shift. It's a 86 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 1: dangerous job, but it can pay around fourteen hundred dollars 87 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:14,560 Speaker 1: a day. Most of us have those saturation divers to 88 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:17,880 Speaker 1: thank for the fuel in our gas tanks. But George 89 00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:21,039 Speaker 1: Bond's vision was not just industrial, it was military and 90 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:24,880 Speaker 1: civilian and scientific. He solved the problem of going deeper 91 00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:27,719 Speaker 1: and staying longer. But after Sea Lab was canceled, it 92 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:30,280 Speaker 1: turned out the industry is where the money was. Any 93 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:34,200 Speaker 1: military application equipping military submarines to release saturation divers as 94 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:36,920 Speaker 1: spies during the Cold War, for instance, would be highly 95 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:40,680 Speaker 1: classified and therefore are hard to document. But there is 96 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:42,880 Speaker 1: one place on Earth where a Sea Lab type facility 97 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:46,760 Speaker 1: still exists for scientific research, the Aquarius Reef base south 98 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:49,120 Speaker 1: of the Florida Keys, and it's been an operation for 99 00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:52,400 Speaker 1: over twenty years. Scientists can go down there sixty feet 100 00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:55,080 Speaker 1: that's eighteen meters below the surface and live anywhere from 101 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:57,400 Speaker 1: a few days to a couple of weeks running experiments 102 00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:01,799 Speaker 1: on the reef. Hellworth said Dr Bond's vision was science related. 103 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:04,080 Speaker 1: He thought we ought to have sea lab like bases 104 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:06,000 Speaker 1: set up in the ocean wherever there might be something 105 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:08,479 Speaker 1: of interest to study and observe. We should get to 106 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:11,040 Speaker 1: know that environment better because there's value to spending time 107 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:13,200 Speaker 1: in the ocean, just like there was value in Jane 108 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:15,159 Speaker 1: Goodall's being able to sit and observe in the jungle. 109 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:17,599 Speaker 1: Once you're down there and can stay a while, you 110 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:20,000 Speaker 1: really don't know what you're going to see. That's how 111 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:28,000 Speaker 1: we discover things. Today's episode was written by Jesceline Shields 112 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,080 Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clang for iHeart Media and How 113 00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:32,040 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. For more in this and lots of other 114 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:46,680 Speaker 1: pressurized topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com.